Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto
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"Hey, SHIKAMARU!" Shikamaru heard a familiar blond haired loudmouth call him from the distance.
"Not now Naruto." Shikamaru turned to face Naruto, who was accompanied by Gaara, Kiba, Kankuro, Sasuke, Neji, and Lee.
"What's wrong?" Neji inquired, seeing the worried expression on Shikamaru's face.
"It's Soraoi." Shikamaru anxiously scanned the surrounding area.
"What's wrong with your sister?" Kankuro asked.
"I can't find her." Shikamaru replied.
"What do you mean?" Kiba asked.
"I mean, she took off." Shikamaru replied.
"Why would she do that?" Naruto asked.
"Because she's a woman. And they're all troublesome." Shikamaru was irritated. They were wasting his time.
Of course he knew why she'd taken off. It was entirely their mother's fault. It never failed; the second that Soraoi showed up, everyone would be thrilled. Soraoi would be happy to be home, regardless of what brought her there (be it to rest or because some relative died); Shikamaru would be happy to have his sister there; their father would be excited to see his beloved little girl; and their mother would start bitching about one thing or another. Oh, it wasn't that Yoshino didn't love her daughter; on the contrary, she loved her very much. Just as Shikamaru wrote Soraoi letters every day, Yoshino would send her just as many care packages; new clothes, new weapons, books to read, stationary, pens, money. Soraoi was always far from home, but never far from their thoughts, and Yoshino always made sure she knew this. The only problem was that because Soraoi had left when she was only three years old, mother and daughter had never had time to form a bond other then on paper. So it happened that when they were actually in physical proximity, they just could not get along.
"NOT TO WORRY, OUR DEAR FRIEND, WE SHALL HELP YOU FIND YOUR LOVELY SISTER." Lee exclaimed. The other boys agreed with Lee, they would also help in the search.
"Thanks. Choji is already helping me look. So is my father." Shikamaru replied.
"We should get the girls to help too." Kankuro suggested.
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"So there's nothing about Tomoe?" Tsunade asked Shizune.
"No, nothing. Nothing at all." Shizune grimly replied.
"How is it possible that a legendary kunoichi could die and no one has heard anything about it?" Tsunade paced through the room, frustrated that all efforts to confirm Soraoi's story led to nothing but dead ends. "Is it possible the girl was lying?"
"No; we've verified that there was an ambush in the location we were directed to. It appeared that there were about fifteen or twenty missing-nin against just the two." Shizune informed.
"Then it is true?" Tsunade slumped down onto her chair.
"We can't say for certain. ANBU reports that there were a number of casualties, but they couldn't confirm that Tomoe was among them." Shizune read off of the mission report in front of her.
"So she could still be alive?" Tsunade reasoned.
"But then why wouldn't she have gone back to save Soraoi?" Shizune wondered.
"It's possible, like Soraoi, Tomoe believed that the other had been killed during the ambush." Tsunade offered.
"But then we would have heard something about her, wouldn't we?" Shizune asked.
"That's true." Tsunade taped her fingers on the desk. So which is it? Is Tomoe alive or isn't she? If she is, why hasn't anyone heard anything? And if she isn't, why doesn't anyone know?
"There's more." Shizune began.
"More?" Tsunade shook away her thoughts and listened to what Shizune had to say.
"It seems that the group of missing-nin Soraoi was captured by is planning something." Shizune looked up from the mission report she held in her hand to see Tsunade's reaction.
"Planning something?" Tsunade knew this couldn't possibly be good news.
The five nations had finally reached a peaceful co-existence. Many of the major enemy organizations and rouge ninjas in the bingo book had been captured or scattered throughout the nations, hiding from the authorities. Their numbers had dwindled and there were few groups that were known to include more than two or three rouge ninjas, thus being considered of very little threat, since the majority of those still classified as missing were Chunin level or lower.
"It appears that a number of missing-nin are teaming up to strike against the five nations. The group that Soraoi was captured by seems to be the lead unit, made up mostly of S-class shinobi."
"S-Class?" Tsunade was shocked, it was believed that most S-class missing-nin had already been captured, but if what Shizune said was true, that meant there were at least a dozen or so left, which meant if they all teamed up, it could result in serious trouble later on.
"Yes, we were surprised to find out there were so many left as well." Shizune replied.
"What could they be planning?" This can't be good, Tsunade thought.
"We still have no idea," Shizune confessed, "but ANBU is investigating as we speak."
"Whatever it is," Tsunade stood up from her desk, "it's going to have to be something big to hit a blow against all five nations." She walked over to the window to look down upon the streets below, as the villagers prepared for the festivities of the following day.
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Soraoi was frustrated.
The last few months had been an eternity to her. The pain of losing her mentor, her master, her friend; it had all been so draining. And then, the experience she had had to endure; to be held captive for months by a group of missing-nin, to satisfy their carnal urges. It had been unbearable.
Since escaping that hell, she'd often find herself waking up in the middle of the night, trembling from the sheer terror. She had never had nightmares until then; never had a reason to. She'd never been scared of anything; never been one to be scared of the dark, but now, she found herself cowering at every shadow, jumping at every noise. It wasn't like her, and she hated it. So she hid it. Smiled when she wanted to cry, laughed when she wanted to scream, joked when she wanted to throw up; she tired so hard to pretend that everything was okay, that she almost convinced herself it was… almost.
But she couldn't forget. Try as she might, she couldn't. She'd often asked herself how it was possible that she had lived through it. As each night that she was there fell, knowing what was coming, she had wanted to die. And not a peaceful, pain-free death; she wanted to die painfully, she wanted to hurt. She had yearned for a physical pain that could hurt her enough to make her forget about the emotional one. She had prayed for the darkness to engulf her so that she would not have to awaken to yet another day of the same.
As the day's had passed, she had begun to grow colder and colder. She had learned to block out everything. Ignored the taunting, the touches, the laughter; she had ignored it all.
Studying under Tomoe had taught her to bring stillness in battle. To forget all emotions and to allow the movement of her body, be the only thing on her mind. Tomoe had once told her that the key to maintaining one's sanity in the insane world of the shinobi was to remove one's self from the job. Soraoi had learned this, and taken it to heart. It made it easier to face death so often. She had accepted death and killing as a part of her life, believing it was the role all shinobi were born to; but she never liked the killing, she strongly believed that it worst than death, though death was never an option. She never thought there could be anything worst then killing; she was wrong.
Soraoi threw yet another shuriken at the poor defenseless tree in front of her. The battle field had always been the place where she had found comfort. Though she didn't like killing, she thoroughly enjoyed fighting. She's always felt there was a beauty to the movements in a fight; like a dance. Leaping through the air, the foot work, the way her body bent, the way her arms swung with each hit, each weapon thrown; it was art. It was also an excellent way to deal with frustration, which is why Soraoi now found herself surrounded by punctured trees.
"Everyone's looking for you" a voice from behind the trees flatly stated.
"Oh?" Soraoi had known that the boy was standing there, watching her.
She had been waiting for him to come out for some time now. At first she had been a little nervous about the strange presence she had felt. It was a strong and dark chakra; almost blood thirsty. When she had determined that he meant her no harm, she had begun to realize how much like Tomoe's that chakra was. It wasn't that they were the same, but there was a similar tortured feeling to the chakra. When Soraoi had first met Tomoe, the heated darkness of her soul had terrified Soraoi, but she had grown to realize that it was not sinister malice that dwelt in her heart; it was loneliness. Soraoi suspected it was the same for this boy.
"Shikamaru is worried." The boy stated.
Soraoi eyed the boy curiously for a moment. He was taller than her, which wasn't that much of an accomplishment considering she was rather petite, but he still stood about half a foot taller than her. He had blood red hair, cut short and spiky. His eyes were a teal color, surrounded by what appeared to be thick eyeliner, but too prefect to really be make up. He was dressed in brown and wore a giant gourd strapped to his back. He had a symbol on his forehead; Love. In a way, it seemed to clash with the coldness of the boys face, but in his eyes, she could tell it was fitting.
"I'm aware of this" she responded, unable to take her eyes off of the young man before her.
"And it means nothing to you?" Gaara asked.
"It means everything to me." She countered. "But I needed to get away."
"Why?" Gaara wasn't usually one to ask too many questions, or to care for the response for that matter, but there was something in this girl's eyes that had him captivated, and he couldn't quite understand what it was.
"I just did." She replied, thinking it over. "Haven't you ever felt like you just didn't… fit?"
"Hn." He didn't know what to say; of course he knew how that felt. He's spent most of his life feeling that way.
"Who are you?" Soraoi gave him a questioning look.
"Gaara" he replied.
"Gaara…" she repeated, "That makes senses." She said thoughtfully.
"…" he didn't quite understand what she was getting at until he noticed her looking at the kanji on his forehead.
"Gaara…" She said thoughtfully, "Gaara of the sand."
She couldn't believe she hadn't known. Shikamaru had told her many stories about the sand siblings; he'd even described Gaara's physical appearance. How had she not realized that this was Gaara? Oh, but she knew why. Whenever Shikamaru wrote about the sand siblings, Soraoi had always been more interested in what he had to say about Temari then about Gaara or Kankuro.
"Yes." He calmly replied.
"So you're the Kazekage." She stated thoughtfully. "You're very young."
"…"
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A/N: Yay! I'm so glad people are enjoying this story. This chapter was a little more about the back-story, character development and getting Gaara and Soraoi to meet; but there was also some foreshadowing (which I've been doing a lot of in previous chapters).
Anyway, I hope you liked this chapter, I've got some plans for future chapters, by hey, if any of you have any ideas or suggestions for the story I'm always more than happy to hear from readers.
Thanks again to everyone whose read and reviewed. :D
UP NEXT: the festival.